Giants assistant GM Brandon Brown hoping his Long Island foundation will help with rebuild

Brandon Brown has lots of great memories from playing football for St. Anthony’s. He was a three-year starter for a team that won three straight CHSFL titles from 2003-05, so there are plenty of on-field moments that stand out. The aspect of his high school playing career he recalls most fondly, though, was when his mother, Sonia DeSouza-Brown, would host pasta and chicken dinners for the Friars before their games.

"Our house wasn’t big," Brown said, "but we packed it out with as many teammates as we could. It was one of those things that you never forget from a camaraderie standpoint growing up."

Also a lesson that has stuck with him.

Now 33 years old and the newly named assistant general manager of the Giants, Brown, who grew up in Glen Cove, is part of a front office rebuild that is tasked with turning a franchise that hasn’t won a postseason game in more than a decade into a consistent contender.

It won’t be easy and it won’t be quick. There are plenty of obstacles and handicaps, from the current state of the roster to the business realities of the salary cap that need addressing.

But as he dives into this first offseason of this Giants overhaul, a process that starts in earnest with the NFL Combine in Indianapolis this week, Brown said he often reflects on what made St. Anthony’s the local football powerhouse it was during his time there . . . and how he might be able to use the same process in the NFL.

"When you look at any franchise that is successful, whether it’s the pro, college or high school level, there are a couple of things you can almost always identify," he told Newsday. "It’s culture, process and people. When you have those three aligned, even when talent isn’t equal across the board, it gives you the opportunity to be successful."

It did at St. Anthony’s.

"One thing I took from St. Anthony’s is the culture," he said. "That kind of program and tradition that St. Anthony’s had, it was right up my alley."

It was at St. Anthony’s, after all, that Brown decided he wanted to work in NFL front offices. At the time, he was a speedy but undersized defensive back who started working on scouting techniques with Friars assistant coach Mark Maier and fellow St. Anthony’s product Pat Kirwan, both of whom had worked for the Jets’ front office. They taught him to write reports, spot talent and break down video. They also helped him plot the path of his own career.

Working for the Giants as the second in command is, it turns out, a little different from working elsewhere in the league, especially for someone who grew up on Long Island.

While there have been plenty of former coaches and teammates who have followed his career with Boston College, the Colts and, for the past five years, the Eagles, coming home to the Giants has created a new level of passion from them.

He routinely gets unsolicited advice on what needs to be done ("fix the offensive line!") and what needs to be said to players ("tell Saquon to run north and south more!") as well as memories from those who have been invested in the Giants as season ticket-holders or just fans for generations.

"There is the homecoming aspect that comes into it," Brown said. "There are guys that I played with who I have tight relationships with and guys I haven’t talked to in 10 years who I get phone calls and texts from. It was kind of like getting the band back together. You have all these relationships that just because of the things life throws your way, you kind of lose sight of them, but this opportunity has allowed a lot of those to come back full circle. I’m really grateful for that."

There won’t be any more chicken and pasta dinners in Glen Cove. Brown’s family moved to Florida in the nearly two decades since he was a high school kid, dreaming first of playing and then, more realistically, of working in the NFL.

The taste of those meals and what they meant continue to linger, though, as surely as the championship banners keep flying at the South Huntington campus.

"The food was awesome," former St. Anthony’s teammate John-Kevin Dolce, who went on to play at Virginia, recalled of the feasts set out by Mrs. Brown, "but it was the camaraderie that came with it that was what held us together and kept us close and ended up helping us win multiple championships."

Perhaps the same recipe can help the Giants do it too.

By Tom Rock

tom.rock@newsday.com@TomRock_Newsday

Tom Rock began covering sports for Newsday in 1996 and became its NFL columnist in 2022. He previously was Newsday's Giants beat writer beginning in 2008.